If I were to ask 100 people; “do you think warming up before a round of golf is a good idea,?” My best guess would have said that 95% of participants will say yes.
But I was wrong, lol. After taking a survey on Instagram it turns out that 90% of people said yes (although one of my friends answered “no” trying to mess up my survey, thanks Joe 😂)
If I were to change the question to; “Do you warm up before playing golf?” My guess is that 5% of them will say yes.
Why is there such a disparity?
Golfers clearly know it’s important, so why don’t you warm up before you play? Are warm-ups too much of an inconvenience? Do they take too much time? Require too much equipment? Are people too busy? Do you just not care?
I think the answer is a little bit of everythin. But at the core of it, I think people just don’t understand what a warm-up should entail.
Warm ups should not take a lot of time or equipment and are low-hanging fruit that can help you feel and perform your best.
At Par Four Performance, we break down warm-ups into 5 components. Today, we are going to talk about Dynamic Stretching.
If you would like to know about the other four components, download our free golf warm-up ebook. It goes into each one in-depth and comes with a sample warm-up that you can use before your next round 💪.
DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY TODAY
Dynamic Stretching
As with all warm-ups, the goal is to prepare the body for activity. Dynamic stretching helps you elevate your core temperature and actively move your joints through their full ranges of motion.
The goal is to improve your body’s active mobility allowing you to move more freely than before warming up.
This sets the stage for higher-level warm-up activities that improve your nervous system’s ability to coordinate movement and create force.
For dynamic stretching, we recommend performing 2-4 exercises and performing 1-2 sets of 6-8 reps per movement.
For golf, I like to focus on the spine, shoulders, and hips since these areas require the most amount of movement overall when it comes to the golf swing.
Give these dynamic stretches a try before your next golf round
1. Loaded Shoulder CARs
2. Cat/Camel Series
3. Hip 90/90 Capsular CARs
4. Pull to Squat with T/Spine Rotation
If you found this blog post beneficial, make sure you download my free Golf Warm-Up Ebook!
You will learn
- How to create an effective warm-up
- A printable warm-up template that you can use to design your warm-ups
- A sample warm-up with video demonstration that you can perform before your next golf round